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Do These Formula Percentages Sound Right?

January 10, 2010 - 11:16am

Feelin Crumby

Do These Formula Percentages Sound Right?

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday I baked 2 loaves using my week-old desem. Laurel's book says the leavening power wouldn't be at it's full potential, and she wasn't kidding. The taste was incredible, but the loaves were dense, and barely rose at all. The crust is crisp, crunchy, and chewy. Using the recipe for baking with a week-old starter, I developed these percentages. Would you mind taking a look at it and giving me some feedback? Thank Youi!

Flour - 422g - 100%

Starter - 498g (I used all of what I set out to bake with) - 118%

Water - 295g - 70%

Salt - 18g - 4.25%

From this I made 2 loaves @ 531g, or 1lb. 2 3/4 oz., each.

I returned the other portion of my week-old starter to my container with 100% organic whole wheat for another week of feeding. The book says this will create more leavening power.

Correct. This starter is a 2 week process, during which time no salt is ever added. It is strictly 100% organic wheat flour and water only. In the book, it's referred to as the starter for Desem bread. I guess I'm going to have to go back through the archives to find discussion on how others have done it, and their results. Like I said originally, the bread tastes great . . . and, it's said in the book that after only "living" one week, the starter will not be so strong in the leavening department. So, who knows? Maybe I'm right on with how it's supposed to be. Time will tell. If, after the end of this week, the starter still doesn't provide much rise, I'm going to experiment with higher hydration and possibly a little commercial yeast thrown in the dough mix to give it a boost.

Just in case you're not familiar with this book and the process . . . once the flour and water are mixed (whether originally or when the starter is fed), the ball of dough is then buried in the center of a container of 100% organic wheat flour. I have 16lbs. that my starter is buried in , for it's second week.

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